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Case still open for missing Peru State student

Family members of a missing college student believe their loved one is dead, but they are still fighting and looking for closure.

Tyler "Ty" Thomas disappeared from Peru State College in December 2010. Family members believe the college and Ty’s former classmates are civilly responsible.

The Thomas family filed two lawsuits against the school in December. Contrary to reports that surfaced earlier this week, attorney Timothy Ashford said the case has not been dismissed. In fact, it is still open.

According to federal court documents, the Thomas’ filed a second lawsuit against Joshua Keadle and the board of trustees of the Nebraska state colleges, the governing body of Peru State.

Ashford said he still has the school on the hook and believes Keadle is civilly responsible for Thomas’ disappearance, even though he was never criminally charged.

Ashford said Keadle was the last known person to see Thomas alive, and that he knows what happened to her as he sits in prison on an unrelated rape conviction.

“We believe that Joshua Keadle should never have been on that campus,” Ashford said.

Ashford said Peru State should have done more to review Keadle's background. According to a complaint, there had been a prior disciplinary hearing concerning Keadle on allegations that he had harassed one or more female students before Thomas disappeared.

Ashford said the school should not have put the 29-year-old in the same building as college girls.

“The evidence is going to show, we believe, that there was some procedures that should have been in place at the time of the abduction and murder of Miss Thomas,” he said.

Since the legal threshold to win civil cases is less than criminal cases, Ashford believes Keadle and the college system will lose, giving the Thomas family justice, he said.

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